Stepping back in time

Yesterday is history. People often think of it as “the day before,” or simply yesterday. But with each passing day, the collective efforts of the volunteers sworn to protect Burlington’s history becomes tougher.

Yesterday is history. People often think of it as “the day before,” or simply yesterday. But with each passing day, the collective efforts of the volunteers sworn to protect Burlington’s history becomes tougher.

The Burlington Historical Museum, at 13 Bedford St., is overseen by members of the Historical Commission – its sole mission is simple: preserve the town’s past.

So it’s fitting that visitors find themselves stepping back in time as soon as they set foot in the former Center School, a wood-framed one-room schoolhouse built in 1855.

Visitors and perhaps residents without a sense of history might find the building itself a bit non-descript until they cross the threshold to find a mural surrounding them in what could be considered the foyer.

The mural, according to Toni Faria and Joyce Fay, was painted by Donald Gorvette and Jeffrey Weaver, Burlington High School students, in 1974. It depicts various highlights of the town’s past, including a visit by two of America’s notable patriots, Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

According to Fay, the pair fled to Burlington from Lexington after being warned by Paul Revere that British soldiers were looking for them.

Adams and Hancock stayed at two homes while in Burlington, including the Wyman House, after learning the British were continuing their search.

Reading from a brief under the mural and written by John Fogelberg, Fay said: “They went up through the woods and went to the Amos Wyman Farm on Francis Wyman Road and stayed overnight there. Since their visit was a surprise, Sarah Wyman could only serve them brown bread, cold pork and potatoes. She was later rewarded for her patriotism and hospitality with the gift of a cow.”

Another mural depicts the center of town, explained Fay, which once had a number of homes on the Town Common.

“The white house is the Walker House, which is still standing today,” she said.

It was there, Fay said, that John Walker, once the president of Harvard College, was born.

The mural includes a blacksmith shop, the Historical Museum, the Second Parish Meeting House, which today stands on the corner of Lexington and Bedford streets, as well as the former Town Hall that once stood atop Simonds Park and the “Barge.”

The Barge, said Faria, was essentially an early forerunner of today’s school bus.

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“It was built because parents of kids attending West School on Middlesex Turnpike said the Center School was too far away,” she explained.

Inside the museum is a scaled-down version of the barge, which Faria said was built by John Ruskowski. An engraved plaque reads: “The Barge, Burlington’s first school bus, dedicated by Fox Hill School in commemoration of Burlington’s bicentennial, 1799 – 1999.”

Eventually, with the completion of the Union School in 1898, Center School was closed and became Burlington’s first library, serving in that capacity until it became a temporary police station in the late 1960s.

It has served as the home to the museum since 1975 and according to Faria, sits on property donated to the town by Abner Marion.

The museum, she added, typically changes the displays on a regular basis. At present, artifacts from Grandview Farm are on display, given the amount of notoriety the property has had since renovations began earlier this year.

“This early view of Grandview Farm is depicted here with a nice pen and ink sketch of what it looked like from Bennett’s Hill, which is where Grandview is now located,” she said. “Abner Marion was the original owner of Grandview and his grandfather was one of the Minutemen from the parish in 1775.

“It’s a combination of two houses,” she explained. “It was originally a small house that Abner had and then they moved a local house up with it [and] tacked it on to create this long house with six or seven windows across the top.”

Inside the museum, visitors will find artifacts spanning approximately 150 years, including tools used during Burlington’s early years when the town was primarily a farming community, and items used at the McIntire Dairy. The McIntire family, said Faria, bought Grandview and turned the farm into a dairy.

“The dairy was very successful,” she said.

Charles McIntire, Faria noted, was also a vegetable farmer who became affectionately known as the “Squash King.”

“His Blue Hubbard squash and pumpkins were known all over New England,” she said.

The museum is open Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8 p.m., Pride Day, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and by appointment. To make an appointment, call 781-272-2516 or 781-272-1049.